Back to where it all started

Hi There

Our last post found us caught up on the Bridewater Canal for a few weeks by a stoppage, well stoppages actually, as they were working on the Barton Aqueduct at the same time as they were doing some piling work a bit further down the canal. The piling work actually run over schedule by a few days, but it didn’t effect us as some good friends of ours were in the UK from Australia and came to stay with us for a few days.

 

So here are Bod and Shaz (aka Keith and Sharon) and Bod doesn't realise that he's a millisecond away from getting a wet doggy kiss.

The girls full of smiles, but note the empty glasses and we'll say no more.

Filling up with water before we double back to drop them off, two nights just went tooooo quick.

God help us, the girls are control, could it get any worse.

Yes it could, now it's just Shaz with two minutes of narrow boat experience behind her.

We still haven't been able to wrestle Shaz off the tiller and she's clearly enjoying having her hands on 5.75", sorry misprint, should have been 57.5' of narrowboat.

Bods turn now and it can't be too cold today as even though he's over from Oz he hasn't even got his coat done up.

As our alcohol consumption has really plummeted since we started living aboard due in part to the budget we live to and of course to improve our health (!), we undo all the good when anyone comes to stay with us and end up binge drinking from midday till bedtime. After two days of this and after waving them off in the car park I was in my bed for a snooze. Really good to catch up with them although it'll be a few years before our paths cross again.

We’ve started heading south now to 1) meet up with our youngest son and his girlfriend who are flying into East Midlands airport for a holiday with us at the beginning of May and possibly our eldest with his girlfriend as well the week before and 2) to meet up with some friends who are hiring a boat for three weeks towards the end of July. We've decided to head back to where this all started for us, Audlem in Cheshire, as we’d only ever travelled north from there so are going to travel down the rest of the Shroppie (Shropshire Union Canal) and then head east towards the airport. As we’re just backtracking over canals we’ve done over the last year, we’ve done some really long days (well long days by our standards that is considering we only normally travel an average of thirty hours a month) and have covered 67.5 miles in 24 hours over 7 days. Had we travelled by car, we could have done it in 1 hour and 2 minutes! Just planning to moor up now for a few days and then get back into our routine of travelling for an hour or two and then just moor up for a few days.

Here are a few photo’s from our trip down from Leigh on the Bridgewater Canal and finishing over looking a meadow near Audlem on the Shroppie where we’ve moored quite a few times as the marina where Badger Sett lived (Overwater Marina) is just around the corner.

We didn't want to go any further than Worsley on the first day as it starts getting built up after this and once we start we'd prefer to get through to the other side of the outskirts of Manchester.

 

 Could almost be the summer couldn't it, not the beginning of March.

The next morning and coming up on the Barton Aqueduct.

Looking down on the Manchester Ship Canal.

And that is us across.

What started out a cold, windy, grey day finished in style with us mooring near Lymm on the Bridgewater Canal watching the sun go down.

Moored up after our second day of travel at the site of the canal breach at Dutton on the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Just on the centre point of the breach itself that is marked by the plaque in the picture.

The main reason for stopping here though was the view.

 

Next morning and passing a picnic place a few miles north of Middlewich, where we've stopped a few times, that's on the opposite side to the tow path and great for The Boys as they can just roam about with no worry about dog walkers or cyclists on the tow path side.

No pictures of our mooring place in Middlewich for the night as it was more for convenience than outlook, convenience being in the shape of a Tesco about ten minutes walk away.

Having got used to the wide canals with their wide bridges and double locks since last summer, it's a bit of a shock to the system getting back onto the narrow canal network and having to think and take a little bit more care in narrower times. Forth lock of the day, but the first on the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie and The Boys wondering why mum's not onboard with them.

Another old favourite mooring place of ours on the Middlewich Branch that overlooks Church Minshull.

 

With a nice wide towpath and very little passing trade (walkers) where we can have a read in the sun and The Boys can have a sniff about.

 

The Boys having a hard earned rest after a hard days work. Luckily Binks had got Nicky's arm to rest on for comfort and Benji's okay as his got his brothers head!

Getting to the end of the day and a going,

going,

gone sequence of photo's.

Our final mooring place at Audlem before we set off up the fifteen locks and onto new and unexplored canals canals.

And a final night treat at about as close to what we could call our 'local pub', The Shroppie Fly' at Audlem. We hadn't been impressed by the food the last few times we'd been in, but saw that it had been refurbished and had been told that the food and prices were good and I think we'd agree to both from what we had.

Well that is us for this post and about to head off into the unknown so it's TTFN (ta ta for now) from us.

And so in signing off,

Day 461 in the Badger Sett Narrowboat - 929 miles and 386 locks further on from when we started.

(Actually, this is a bit strange this one, as we are actually where we started out 461 days ago!)